Étude Elementary Blog

showing entries tagged "Dance Education"

Sheboygan, Wis - The non-profit Étude Group of Sheboygan, Wisconsin will conduct a six-month study to determine the viability of a Makerspace in Sheboygan’s FreshTech Innovation District. In coordination with the Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation (SCEDC) and the City of Sheboygan, who are funding the study. Étude will introduce the concept of a makerspace and collect data through a series of focus groups, interviews, and experiential making events hosted throughout the county.

A makerspace is a place in which people with shared interests and diverse skills can gather to work on projects while sharing ideas, equipment, and knowledge.

Joseph Sheehan, Executive Director of the SCEDC, likes the comparison of a Makerspace to a gym membership, relating that the membership offers access to instructional classes, recreational use of the facility and tools, and layers of social structures that are accessible to people of all ages and skill sets. Instead of physical fitness, a makerspace membership would be an investment in creative or technical fitness.

In cities like Milwaukee and Madison, and others across the country, people are joining makerspaces for access to tools and classes, and they are maintaining their membership because of the community. Working near others, instead of at home in a basement or garage, means that members can quickly get feedback, learn a new skill, problem-solve, and connect. A 2016 study by Popular Sciencefound that the overall number of makerspaces in the US grew by 140% in ten years.

The initial proposal for the FreshTech Makerspace study will be based off of NextFab - Wilmington, a makerspace in downtown Wilmington Delaware, a city of 70,000 people with a rich manufacturing history. NextFab Wilmington is one example of the growing maker movement building engaging and creative spaces in urban centers.

There is increasing interest in making in the Sheboygan area as well. With its long history of manufacturing, arts, and entrepreneurship, this is no surprise.

Existing spaces that fall into what has become known as the “maker movement” include Mead Public Library’s makerspace, the Imaginarium, which offers equipment for library visitors to 3D print, sew, digitize and edit media, create jewelry. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center’s ARTery offer maker kits that can be checked out. There are also makerspaces embedded in schools’ technical education departments, classrooms, libraries, and extra-curricular programming.

In 2014, Étude launched Maker Break programs for children and young adults during breaks in the school year. Without a physical makerspace and with generous grants from the Black Springs Foundation, the program brings the ethos and experience of making to events like JMKAC Levitt Amp, SCIO Farmers Market, and the Boys and Girls Club. Through this endeavor and the development of arts-infused schools a decade earlier, Étude has participated in initiatives by the following organizations: Maker Ed, Maker Faire Milwaukee, Play. Make. Learn. at UW-Madison, Innovative Schools Network, and Sheboygan’s first Mini Maker Faire, held in 2018.

Étude will conduct the FreshTech Makerspace study in coordination with ongoing efforts to create Sheboygan County’s Innovation District, FreshTech. The study will build off the FreshTech Summit held in September with leaders in the private and public sector in Sheboygan county. The FreshTech Summit found that Sheboygan is ripe for both multigenerational social opportunities as well as increased technical and creative skill development. With an aging workforce in Sheboygan County, the study will explore how the expertise and energy of retiring individuals might intersect with young professionals’ desire for more flexible professional development and increased opportunities for social bonding in an urban setting.

The FreshTech Makerspace Study will help determine the kinds of classes, tools, and member participation is right for Sheboygan ‘makers.’

Our school is fortunate to be one of the only schools in the area that offers dance as a content area taught during the normal school day. We teach dance Kindergarten through grade 12 and use dance/movement as an art form that used to communicate ideas, as well as, a tool for calming students through our yoga and Movement and Learning work. As people become more sedentary in general, it is important that we find ways throughout a students’ school career to remind them of the powerful impact of movement.

As I write this blog, I am surrounded by the sounds of students creating music, the sight of students creating their own dances, and drama students working through their own scripts and improv pieces. At first look, it is a bit chaotic, but after further observation, it is productive chaos. Each student is engaged in doing something; not tacitly learning, but involved in thoughtful dialogue with other students and teachers. The arts inherently do this. The arts engage a child in a holistic approach to learning unlike other subjects. This is why the arts are core to what we do at the schools of the Étude Group. As we kick off National Arts Education Week[https://www.americansforthearts.org/sites/default/files/images/2015/by_program/networks-and-councils/arts_education_network/BILLS-111hconres275enr.pdf] I want to use this week to share with you the transformative impact the arts have played within our schools.

One cardinal rule we live by in the schools of the Étude Group is Engagement Over Compliance. Engagement a result of our investment in creating inclusive school culture, creating relevant curriculum, and building solid relationships with kids. Compliance, on the other hand, requires kids to follow the rules of others without question or voice. We strive for engagement, and where some compliance is required for schools to function properly, our students participate in developing the rules.

We are forever grateful for the continual support our school community shows us. Today is a day is a day internationally recognized as a day of giving. As you consider participating in Giving Tuesday, we ask that you consider a few ways to support the schools of the Étude Group. As always, we accept donations that help our Expanding Horizons fund. At its core, this fund helps us ensure that all students, regardless of socio-economic status, can access opportunities to further their educational goals. This includes funding for college vis 22852135 10155935150184124 2781729095894290688 n2 its, field experiences that integrate with student projects partial scholarships for international travel, after school programs that support college persistence such as ACT Prep, and opportunities for our students to work with high level professionals. All of these experiences build off of the work done in our school to help our young people after school.

This blog is part of a monthly series titled ReBlog sharing out articles that speak to the work we are doing in the schools of The Étude Group. Through these reblogs, we want to connect the work being done here in Sheboygan to the national conversation about education.

There is something to a name. Names have meaning and too often we take them granted without ever exploring their meanings. Nike is the name of a greek god of victory; an appropriate name for a athletic shoe company. Lego stems from the dutch phrase leg godt, which means “play well”. The term Étude was was also selected in order to assign a single word to our educational philosophy.